Nauheim

NAUHEIM (Bad Nauheim), town in Hesse, Germany. Jews may have lived in Nauheim as early as 1303; during the *Black Death persecutions (1348) they were expelled from the duchy of *Hanau. In 1464 three Jewish households are noted in the city; in a document of the same year they appear as imperial Kammerknechte ("serfs of the chamber"; see servi camerae *regis) whose tax payments form part of a transaction between the margrave of Brandenburg and the count of Hanau. Jews are again attested as taxpayers in Nauheim in the 16^th century. They were expelled once more in 1539. From the middle of the 16^th century onward some *Schutzjuden lived in Nauheim, but their number was small. Nauheim Jews began worshiping in a rented prayer room in 1830. In 1861 there were 34 Jews in Nauheim. A Jewish cemetery was consecrated in 1866, and a new one in the first years of the 20^th century. The first synagogue dates from 1867; a second larger one was built in 1928. At that time, the community had a religious school and a ḥevra kaddisha. In 1933 the Jewish population numbered 300. The synagogue survived the Nazi period and was used once more by a reestablished congregation that totaled 124 persons in 1970. The Jewish community numbered 84 in 1989 and 341 in 2005. The increase is explained by the immigration of Jews from the former Soviet Union.

Sources: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2007 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved.